Solving the climate crisis, one hospital at a time

Solving the climate crisis, one hospital at a time

Share On:

With early optimism surrounding the 2015 Paris agreement on climate change now fading into anxiety over potential changes to U.S. environmental policy under a Trump administration, many are looking for new leaders in the fight against global warming. Hospitals should step into the breach. Doing so could both slow climate change and improve healthcare systems globally.

Leadership on major world problems is not new to the health sector, which is already confronting intractable global challenges such as HIV/AIDS, Ebola and Zika.

The 2015 report of the Lancet Climate Change Commission called climate change the “biggest global health opportunity of the 21st century,” because of the potential to improve both the health of the planet and individuals by taking steps such as reducing air pollution. The authors optimistically noted that if the public health community can fight Big Tobacco or infectious outbreaks, it can tackle climate change, too.

Top Stories from Renzo

Other Fellows In The News

FEATURED: Planetary Health: The Interdependence of Human and Natural Systems

6/24/2016

Aspen Institute Spotlight Health

It is no longer possible to separate the health of the planet from the health of its people. Disease patterns are changing as the climate does, and human health is at risk from loss of biodiversity, depleted water supplies, environmental toxins, and collapsing food systems. As the Rockefeller...

FEATURED: School mental health care plan should be Matiang’i’s next step

1/16/2017

Daily Nation

Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i’s name has been on everyone’s lips after he announced KCPE and KCSE examination results in record time — which was attributed to reforms that he outlined in May last year. Around the time the reforms were announced, there were...